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Ovchinin, Hague remain under care of doctors after failed rocket launch

Earlier, Head of Russia’s Roscosmos state space corporation Dmitry Rogozin said Ovchinin and Hague could fly into space in spring 2019
Alexei Ovchinin and Nick Hague  Donat Sorokin/TASS
Alexei Ovchinin and Nick Hague
© Donat Sorokin/TASS

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. Two crew members of Soyuz MS-10 remain under the care of doctors after the Soyuz booster’s failure, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin told Rossiya-24 TV channel on Tuesday.

"We are in good, or I should say, excellent health. In fact, we were allowed to go home. We are still under the care of specialists, the examinations continue, but Nick and I feel good," Ovchinin said.

This weekend NASA astronaut Nick Hague flew to Huston, he noted. "Now we are just waiting for the end of the investigation to understand our further steps," Ovchinin said.

Earlier, Head of Russia’s Roscosmos state space corporation Dmitry Rogozin said Ovchinin and Hague could fly into space in spring 2019.

A Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with a manned Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft blasted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome to the International Space Station (ISS) in the morning of October 11. On board the spacecraft were veteran Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague, who was making his first space mission.

Following its

 smooth liftoff, the Soyuz’s booster malfunctioned between the first and second stages of separating, whereupon the crew was forced to abort the flight and switch to ballistic descent. The manned Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft ended up landing in the Kazakh steppe.

The press office of Russia’s Central Military District reported that rescuers recovered the crew from the descent capsule. Later, the crew members were examined and found to be in good condition. After their medical check-up in the town of Baikonur, the astronauts were transported to Moscow on October 12.

This is the first emergency landing with this type of carrier rocket over the past 35 years.